Cold Ice
by First Hokage Hashirama Senju
Summary: Urakaku is sent on a mission to investigate why contact with a town in the Land of Iron was lost.


**Cold Ice**

Snow crunched under Urakaku's feet, he made his way towards Tsumetaiaisu, a town located at the base of a mountain. A town twenty hours travel time from the capital of the Land of Iron.

The Samurai's black hair was tied in a traditional chonmage style. His thick, black colored eyebrows matched his eyes in color. Some flakes of snow have become tangled in his eyebrows and hair from recent snowfall. A scar ran down from his forehead to the right eyebrow. His thick, full body cloth underneath his plated armor kept him warm despite the freezing temperatures. The armor covered his shoulders, upper back, chest, his sides, and thighs. Shin guards and metal gauntlets on the lower arms were attached for additional protection.

_Should be right over the hill. _The Samurai arrived at the top of the hill, and looked down to where the town was. He quickly made his way down the hill and approached the town. He neared the first building along the path.

"Stay away from here, if you want to live." A civilian warned the Samurai, fear written on his face.

Urakaku gently grabbed the man's shoulders. His face stern but showing concern. "What happened here? All I know is this town dropped out of contact three days ago, that was all Mifune and I knew about this mission."

"It's dreadful!" the man cried. "T...there's a man, hideous scars on his face!" He gasped, looked around franticly, and stared into the Samurai's eyes. His terrified voice dropped to a whisper. "And he claims the Samurai wronged him in the past. He came, saw that we had no guards or Samurai, and took it over. He told us that if any word reached the Samurai, he would start taking children and imprisoning them and just let them starve. He is a monster, no one can stop him. Even a Samurai crossed this town's path, tried to stop him, and was brutality slaughtered. His body was hung up on the entrance of the Head's house as a message to all Samurai." The man whimpered and fell backwards.

Urakaku caught him, and led him to a bench in front of the first building along the path. His voice dropped to a whisper to not attract attention. "Listen, I am Mifune's right hand man. There was a reason I was sent here. I am one of the strongest Samurai out there." He helped the man sit down. "Did you see the other Samurai, anything?"

"Yes." The man looked down, trembling with fear. "That guy had blonde hair, matching eyebrows, and black eyes. He had similar armor like yours, but with the Land of Iron insignia branded on the front."

_No! Damn it! He was Mifune's most treasured student. That bastard! _The Samurai's face tensed, his anger raging inside. "Can you tell me anything about the man and his two bodyguards?"

"Y…yes." The man's voice quivered. "The man…he had a scar across his forehead, two running down the sides of his face, and eyes of pure blackness. He had armor and also a helmet with some symbol. Hs bodyguards had similar clothing and scars. Only somehow more hideous!"

_Sounds like the three survivors Mifune found thirty years back. _Urakaku looked down the street towards the town center, and found no civilians. "Everyone's likely inside." He turned to face the man. "It's best if you go inside also. I will end this tyranny today."

"Ye...yes sir!" the man stood up and ran into the nearest building entrance, next to the bench, which was a wooden building like all the others in the town.

"Samurai!" a piercing scream rang out.

Urakaku spun around, quickly drawing his sword attached to his side via a belt. He saw two figures whose appearance matched the man's description.

The one to the right wore leather style armor which draped down the front and back of his upper torso, exposing his sides and lower body. He also had a helmet, with a symbol showing a Samurai helmet impaled with an arrow. His face had a horizontal scar on his forehead, a scar that ran down each side of his face close to the ears, and one horizontal scar under the chin.

The one to the left had similar scars and clothing, except for one down the very center of his face that ran from the top of his forehead down to the bottom of his chin.

Die, Samurai!" the guard lacking the center scar screamed and charged the Samurai.

The other bolted off down another street, away from the battle.

_Need to take him down fast, if what the man said about the children is true. _Urakaku readied his sword in front of his body. _Time to use Mifune's technique, Existence Beheading. _The Samurai quickly charged forwards.

His enemy drew closer, sword raised to slice the Samurai in half.

Urakaku, in a blur, zipped straight past the enemy. _It's done. _

A massive gash opened around the bodyguard's midsection, the man gave out a gasp of pain. His upper half fell backward and his lower half fell forward.

"You underestimated a Samurai, and paid the price." Urakaku flicked the blood off his blade, and quickly headed down the street he last saw the other bodyguard running down.

"No! Please do not take my kids!" A woman's pleading screams ripped through the air.

_Need to hurry, that scumbag likely bolted to carry out the threat! _Urakaku turned down another street and saw a wooden door ajar. _Might need to use hand to hand combat. _Urakaku sheathed his sword. He quickly opened the door, entered the house, and spotted the other bodyguard.

"On orders due to a Samurai's presence, I will take your children!" the bodyguard reached for the kids. "Give them to…" The man's sentence ended abruptly, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Out you go!" Urakaku, with a great heave, threw the enemy out the door.

He impacted the ground and pained grunts were heard.

"Thank you sir." The woman hugged her kids.

The Samurai turned to face her. "Name's Urakaku, no need to thank. I was just doing my duty. Stay inside while I deal with the tyrant. One guard's dead, the other will be soon." Urakaku turned around, walked out the door, and shut it behind him.

The guard staggered to his feet, his shoulder dislocated from the impact. "You bastard! That hurt!"

"Take a look in the mirror to see who the real one is." Urakaku drew his sword and infused it with chakra. "Can't tell? It's you. Here is Mifune's original technique, Absolute Inscription."

The guard did not have time to react before the Samurai became a blur. He felt many slashes lace across his torso and limbs.

Urakaku swung once more with his sword diagonally, striking the man down. The last cut sliced multiple vital organs, ending his life instantly. "Now, time to face this tyrant." The Samurai ran off towards the town center. As he arrived, a horrifying sight greeted him. _T…this can't be….that scumbag bastard is dead!_

Strung up between the two pillars in front of the Head's house was the slowly rotting body of a Samurai. The body's facial features and clothing matched what the man told him.

_Mifune is going to be heartbroken to find out his student was killed. _Urakaku ran up the steps, and entered the building.

The room had shiny wooden floors, pillars in the same style, and a sliding panel which cut the room in half.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here, a Samurai." A voice spoke from behind a concealing sliding panel.

"You! Come out!" Urakaku's normally calm exterior had broken, his eyes narrowed with anger, he faced the shadow behind the concealing panel.

"If that is what you want, I will." The man opened the panel and stepped out, sword gripped in his left hand and right hand on the side of the panel. "You saw the corpse? Yours will be up on there next when I am done with you!"

"Why did you do this? He was Mifune's best student and could have become as strong as I am, maybe even stronger!" Urakaku took a step closer, sword braced to attack or defend.

"If you must know, I will tell. But it won't matter much." The man spoke with glee. "He challenged me, almost killed my bodyguards so they ran to me. I took him out in a fierce fight. So I strung his corpse up on the front entrance pillars as a warning to Samurai like you." The man took a step closer, sword poised to strike. The light illuminated his face.

"You!" Urakaku's eyes shot wide open. "You're one of those survivors Mifune found thirty years earlier. A town was raided, and there were survivors. But due to the lack of structures, and a deadly blizzard, most froze to death before Mifune and his team arrived. And you and your bodyguards, your brothers, disappeared twenty years ago under mysterious circumstances."

"And you Samurai never found out?" The man's face twisted into a snarl. "We were abducted by bandits who called themselves Samurai. They tortured us and left these scars on our faces. Some even died!" the man pointed to the scars on his face with his finger. Which were deeper than on the bodyguards. They were similar except for two more scars, one on each side of his jaws which went along the entire length of his mouth. "They would have killed us if we did not escape. And from that point on, swore revenge! Today, we will get revenge! First, we got your leader's student, you are next!"

_Those monsters! _ Urakaku stared in horror. "You mean that group that ran around terrorizing the Land of Iron twenty years ago? That same group Mifune fought and said was the only other time he came close to death, that other time when he faced Hanzō? The same group that loved to torture to please themselves?"

"Yes!" The man sneered. "We took our revenge ten years ago, and tortured them to death!" The man brought up his sword to attack. "And you are next!"

"That group." Urakaku readied his sword. "Was not even part of the Samurai order. They only used the name to try to instill fear into those they took. And also to sow distrust!" the Samurai took a step closer.

"Now Die!" The man bellowed, he charged straight at the Samurai and swing his sword downwards.

Urakaku quickly parried the blow with his blade. "Please listen to reason! They were not Samurai at all!" Urakaku counter-attacked and stabbed forward with his blade to impale the man.

The enemy dodged, and swung once again with his blade. "I will not listen to you!"

Urakaku quickly sidestepped the downward swing, which impacted against his shoulder armor. "I have no choice now." Urakaku quickly stabbed forward with his chakra infused sword. The blade easily slid through the center of the man's chest.

The man's sword dropped from his grasp. "H…how did you…"

"Chakra infused sword. You were finished from the start. And your leather armor is inferior to my metal plated armor." Urakaku withdrew his blade from the man's chest.

The man fell backwards to the ground, onto his back, slowly dying. "C…curse you, Samurai. May you be cursed for eternity!" Moments later, the man's chest went still.

_That's the end of him. Need to check those stairs. _The Samurai headed towards a staircase and descended. Upon reaching the landing in the basement, he saw a torch lit passageway. _There's something here. _He ran quickly down the passageway and soon came upon a large room lined with jail cells.

The Samurai quickly headed to the nearest cell, and found it empty, and checked all the others. _Good, no rotting corpses or anyone locked here. _The Samurai looked into the last cell. Its interior was the same as the others. Its walls were gray; there was only one metal bed, and a toilet. The bars were slightly rusty from age.

_Time to go inform the villagers that the tyrant is dead. _The Samurai sheathed his sword and headed upstairs and quickly went out the door. To his surprise, he found a small crowd outside, and the same man he saw when he first entered the village.

The man approached the Samurai. "I saw the dead bodies of the bodyguards, and someone said you went into there. I am guessing the tyrant is dead at last."

Urakaku walked down the steps. "He is dead. But it appears you need a new leader since I did not find the previous head of the village."

"We will elect a new leader. Our previous head was killed by that dreadful tyrant. But the tyrant is dead at last." The man walked back to the crowd.

Urakaku looked at the man. "Can you get the dead Samurai down? I request this because I want to break the news to Mifune before he sees the body."

The man looked at the strung up corpse. "Yes, we will do it. It's terrible what that tyrant did."

"Thank you, sir. I need to get going." Urakaku headed off down the street towards the capital city of the Land of Iron.

* * *

A day later, Urakaku opened the door to Mifune's room.

Mifune, currently meditating on the floor, looked up to Urakaku. "I presume the mission is complete?"

Urakaku's face became solemn. "Yes. But I bear bad news. Your apprentice has died. The very man you and your team found thirty years ago, and disappeared twenty years ago, had turned evil. And he swore revenge against the Samurai and killed him to make an example out of him to others."

Mifune's head lowered, sadness appearing on his face.

"I will leave you alone to mourn." Urakaku left the room, closing the door behind him.

* * *

Two days later, the fallen Samurai's corpse was brought to the capital, and given a proper burial.


End file.
